Ron Paul Receives 10 minutes Of Speaking Time At CNN Debate

November 25, 2011

Yahoo

By Chris Moody

“They are finally starting to pay attention. Ron Paul is a contender. He goes form having 90 seconds to 10 minutes at the latest debate. This is good.” –KTRN

After several public complaints from Ron Paul’s presidential campaign and his supporters over lack of air time at debates, the Texas congressman received a higher percentage of speaking time at Tuesday’s CNN presidential debate than in any recent contest this election cycle.

In the first hour of the GOP debate in South Carolina on Nov. 13., Paul received just 89 seconds to share his views on television. On Tuesday, he had 600. (CBS gave him more time to speak in the last half hour, when the debate switched to online-only.)

As a percentage, Paul spoke for 13.3 percent of the time, according to an analysis by Eric Ostermeier, a political research associate at the University of Minnesota. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich led the pack for the first time with 16.1 percent of debate time, followed by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with 15.3 percent and Texas Gov. Rick Perry in third with 14.5 percent.

During the 10 minutes that he spoke at the CNN debate, Paul–whose views on national security set him apart from his fellow Republicans and even many leading Democrats–played the role of outlier, arguing against racial profiling, the Patriot Act, the wars abroad, military aid to Israel and the criminalization of drugs.

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How Medicare Wastes Almost $50 Billion a Year

November 25, 2011

The Fiscal Times

By CHAD TERHUNE

“A government program that wastes money? Really? Why do I not find this hard to believe?  They just can’t seem to do anything right.  What really stinks is that Medicare should be helping people – instead they waste billions of dollars every year.” — KTRN

Improper payments – to the wrong person, in the wrong amount, or for the wrong reason — cost Medicare $48 billion last year, or nearly 10 percent of the $516 billion spent on care for seniors, according to federal estimates. And others suggest that the total number for Medicare fraud and waste is close to $100 billion a year.

Whatever the tally, the inability to stop the bleeding at Medicare represents another lost opportunity to wring substantial savings from the federal budget, and it puts additional pressure on Congress and President Obama to cut Medicare benefits as part of the effort to shrink the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion over the next decade.

Beyond that, the losses at Medicare call into question the efficacy of contracting with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies to process Medicare claims, spot suspicious billing, and refer cases to law enforcement.
The contractors are primarily subsidiaries of big health insurers, such as WellPoint and Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Government auditors have criticized these companies for poor performance in the past and faulted Medicare officials for not holding them accountable. A report last year by the Health and Human Services inspector general said one group of 18 contractors identified just $835 million in overpayments in 2007, and 16 of them referred $54 million or less for collection. Medicare is now consolidating that work in seven regional contracts. Overall, in the last fiscal year (2010), Medicare paid $956 million to these contractors for claims processing and fraud detection, according to government figures.

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10 Of The Most Dangerous Chemicals In The World

November 25, 2011

I09

By Keith Veronese

“Interesting article about dangerous chemicals.  Don’t let them fool you about hydrogen peroxide.  Following the One-Minute-Cure protocol is key to oxygenating the body.  I wonder how many of these chemicals Monsanto is responsible for?”  –KTRN

It’s our chemical all-star team of death. We’ve got historic poisons that have claimed the lives of millions in a sinister manner, along with a couple of chemicals that might be in your home. Contact with any of these, in the right dose, will send you running for a hastily scribbled bucket list.

Before we start – a couple of rules concerning these deadly jumbles of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. Neither proteins (sorry Botulinum toxin) nor elements/radioactive isotopes (my apologies to Polonium-210) were considered for the list, with a nod given to chemical compounds that you could come in contact with during your life.

10. Digoxin

A purified extract of the foxglove plant. In proper quantities, digoxin increases the efficiency of the heart. Charles Cullen, a nurse and the “angel of death”, used pharmaceutical grade digoxin to kill over forty patients using the drug.

9. Hydrogen peroxide

The hydrogen peroxide in your bathroom cabinet has a concentration of 3 to 6%. At higher concentrations, it’s a rocket propellant. Hydrogen peroxide is extremely volatile, with the merest nudge setting off an explosion in laboratory grade solutions (>70% hydrogen peroxide). The 2005 London subway bombers used concentrated hydrogen peroxide as an explosive in the attacks that killed 52 people.

8. Ethylene glycol

It’s in your car as antifreeze. It’s cheap. It looks so damn simple. It has a moderate toxicity level, however, the sweet taste can make one easily surpass that boundary, leading the ethylene glycol to be metabolized into the more dangerous oxalic acid. Keep it away from animals and pets, as they are likely to lap up the liquid as a food source. If you do ingest a large amount of ethylene glycol, death is slow, knocking out organ systems systematically over the course of 72 hours. The treatment is administration of grain ethanol, as the ethanol competes with ethylene glycol for binding in your body.

Click here for the full report.

Children Allowed To Be Picky Eaters Develop Allergies

November 25, 2011

The Telegraph

By Nick Collins

“I have no idea how to get kids to eat salads. My nephew will only eat chicken nuggets, white rice, and peanut butter and jelly. He’s literally a bean poll and probably a bit malnourished. So what to do with a picky kid eater?  How bout this – feed them what they want but make sure it’s natural and organic.  Problem solved.” –Chris Davis KTRN

Mothers have traditionally been told to ‘cocoon’ their youngsters by avoiding high-risk foods during pregnancy and while breastfeeding to protect them from potentially dangerous reactions.

But now there is a growing belief that the best way to avoid allergic reactions is to meet the problem head-on and expose children to foods like peanuts in infancy.

Three large studies are under way at King’s College London, Cambridge University and Duke University in North Carolina to determine once and for all the best way of protecting against harmful reactions to food.

Prof Gideon Lack, of King’s College, said that until recently mothers were told to breastfeed for up to six months before introducing their babies to other food, and keep them away from possible allergens until the age of two or three.

The idea, he said, was to “wrap the infant up in a sort of immunological cocoon and not expose them to proteins that could launch allergic reactions.

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New Iowa Poll Places Ron Paul Firmly in First, with 25%

November 23, 2011

The New American

By Raven Clabough

“When you add independents and democrats voting in the primaries (some states allow this), Ron Paul is the clear winner.”  –KTRN

Texas Congressman Ron Paul continues to boast high numbers in public polls despite the lack of media attention that he has received throughout the race for the GOP primary. Just prior to the start of last night’s GOP debate, Paul’s poll numbers were at their highest since the start of the race.

According to Revolution PAC, a SUPER Pac formed to support Ron Paul, Paul leads among his fellow Republicans in Iowa with 25 percent of the vote. Revolution PAC has received early data from TeleResearch, which performed the survey, indicating Paul’s lead. The poll is significant as it is the first to incorporate disaffected Democrats and Independents who will not vote to re-elect President Obama and instead will cross over to vote in the Iowa Republican caucus, as well as Republican voters.

The Laconia Daily Sun reports that Ron Paul has not only managed to win the support of Democrats, but some of the most left-wing Democrats in the party — those who are self-described “progressives.”

Lynn Rudmin Chong, former chair of the Belknap County Democratic Committee, has publicly endorsed Ron Paul, saying, “I have found other kindred souls.” She indicates that she has left the Democratic Party and changed her voter registration to “undeclared” so that she may participate in New Hampshire’s primary.

“He is the only one saying no more war,” said Chong, who spent two days in Washington participating in the OWS protests. She states that there were a number of demonstrators bearing Ron Paul signs at the protest.

“I would definitely call myself a progressive,” said Will Hopkins, director of the New Hampshire Peace Action, a group that advocates the end to foreign wars and significant cuts to the military budget. “I supported Obama in 2008, but I’m supporting Ron Paul. That’s where I’m putting my eggs this year. A lot of folks in the peace movement are taking a look at Paul.”

With both disaffected Democrats and Republicans participating in the poll, Paul has a favorable lead against his Republican counterparts, with 25 percent of the vote, giving him a 4-point advantage over Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain. Surprisingly, Mitt Romney comes in at 15 percent in that poll.

Even without factoring in this group of disenfranchised Democrats, however, Paul’s showing in Iowa is still a good one, as he is in a three-way dead heat for first place alongside Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich. Again, Romney’s support is rather surprising, according to that poll, as he trails with 17 percent.

Click here for the full report.

Now Is The Time For A UFO Sighting

November 23, 2011

UFO Digest

By Chris Holly

“Gazing at the night sky is fun – imagining you’re on a distant planet millions of light years away. (Am I the only one who does this?)  But when you gaze up at the sky, you might just see something unexplainable. If you do, call your local MUFON director or the National UFO Reporting Center. Don’t just keep your sighting to yourself. It’s important to report it.” –Chris Davis KTRN

The fall and early winter months have been part of the year that many UFO sightings have been reported.. I have had sightings myself during those months over my lifetime. I have also spoken to many people who have told me that they have had clear sightings during the fall / winter months with October being a prime time for a sighting.

I have had a change in thinking about this and think we many begin to find the reports of sightings changing with the ongoing change in our climate going on around the world.. If the cycle of sightings followed seasons we must consider that they too will change as our seasons seem to be changing.

I know for the last few years our yearly cycle of nature has changed dramatically from four distinct seasons to two. In New York or more precise my area of New York – Long Island has now become a two season area. Come April on we have warmer weather with lush flowers. This continues until one day somewhere around November we wake up one day and it is winter. Flowers one day – cold ice the next. One day warm the next day cold and boom it is winter. All the in-between seasons are gone. What normally took place in October where I live now only begins to happen in November.

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The Real Story of Thanksgiving

November 23, 2011

Info Wars

By Susan Bates

“As we celebrate being thankful this year, let’s not forget the true story of Thanksgiving. What we have been taught about the holiday is pure propaganda.” –KTRN

Most of us associate the holiday with happy Pilgrims and Indians sitting down to a big feast. And that did happen – once.

The story began in 1614 when a band of English explorers sailed home to England with a ship full of Patuxet Indians bound for slavery. They left behind smallpox which virtually wiped out those who had escaped. By the time the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts Bay they found only one living Patuxet Indian, a man named Squanto who had survived slavery in England and knew their language. He taught them to grow corn and to fish, and negotiated a peace treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Nation. At the end of their first year, the Pilgrims held a great feast honoring Squanto and the Wampanoags.

But as word spread in England about the paradise to be found in the new world, religious zealots called Puritans began arriving by the boat load. Finding no fences around the land, they considered it to be in the public domain. Joined by other British settlers, they seized land, capturing strong young Natives for slaves and killing the rest. But the Pequot Nation had not agreed to the peace treaty Squanto had negotiated and they fought back. The Pequot War was one of the bloodiest Indian wars ever fought.

In 1637 near present day Groton, Connecticut, over 700 men, women and children of the Pequot Tribe had gathered for their annual Green Corn Festival which is our Thanksgiving celebration. In the predawn hours the sleeping Indians were surrounded by English and Dutch mercenaries who ordered them to come outside. Those who came out were shot or clubbed to death while the terrified women and children who huddled inside the longhouse were burned alive. The next day the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared “A Day Of Thanksgiving” because 700 unarmed men, women and children had been murdered.

Click here for the full article from InfoWars.

Fear Of TSA Harassment Is Killing Thousands of Americans

November 23, 2011

Info Wars

By Steve Watson

“I am in the camp of Jesse Ventura – I pretty much never want to fly commercially again. It’s just not worth it. If only we had a better train system in the US – then again, the TSA would probably be all over that too. Where is my teleportation machine?” –Chris Davis KTRN

According to a report in the New York Times this week, owing to opposition to the TSA, The Air Transport Association expects 2 percent fewer people will fly this Thanksgiving week compared with last year, while AAA projects a 4 percent increase in automobile travel.

This raises a serious issue – the fact that many thousands more Americans die in road traffic accidents every year than they do in air accidents.

A new study by The US Travel Association also notes that complaints regarding the TSA’s heavy handed policies and procedures are increasing amongst frequent fliers.

In addition to concerns over pat-downs and radiation-firing body scanners, an increase in waiting times, having to remove clothing and generally unfriendly TSA agents are all contributing factors that are causing more and more Americans to boycott flying and take to their cars.

Although road accident fatalities are decreasing, due to the improvement of safety in vehicles, last year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, close to 33, 000 people were killed in car accidents in the US. Compare that to the 828 people who were killed WORLDWIDE in plane crashes, and the difference is stark.

Timothy Taylor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives has recently noted:

“Researchers have estimated that the 9/11 attacks generated nearly 2,200 additional road traffic deaths in the United States through mid-2003 from a relative increase in driving and reduction in flying resulting from fear of additional terrorist attacks and associated reductions in the convenience of flying.”

“If the new security measures are generating similar, or even smaller, substitutions and the driving risk has grown as hypothesized, the new methods could be contributing to more deaths annually on U.S. roads than have been experienced cumulatively since 9/11 from terrorism against air transportation targets around the world.”

Similar research dovetails with this analysis:

In 2005, researchers at Cornell University found that because more people drove instead of taking a plane in the three months after 9/11, there were an additional 725 fatalities from car crashes than during the same period in the previous year.

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$200 Oil In 2012?

November 23, 2011

MSN

By Motley Fool Staff

In May 2008, as crude oil steamed toward a July — and all-time — high of $147 per barrel, a Goldman Sachs group predicted that black gold’s price could move as high as $200 within the following 24 months.

Instead, during the second half of the year its price rolled over and began a free fall to near $30 as December brought the eventful year to a close.

It now appears, however, that Goldman might just have been early in its prognostication, rather than simply wrong.

Oh, I know, light, sweet crude is currently trading near $100 a barrel, and it would require a host of major events to drive it to double that level, especially during 2012.

But almost unnoticed is a price increase by nearly a third in just the past month. I’m wagering that a host of the potentially catastrophic events could involve Iraq and its neighbour to the east, Iran. The result, almost certainly, would be a steep escalation of crude levies.

Swimming in oil?
For now, energy affairs in war-torn Iraq are progressing swimmingly. The country’s production has grown by leaps and bounds since major oil companies from around the world – beginning with a BP-led (NYSE: BP) consortium, and later including ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) and Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-B) – began accepting the government’s unusual contractual terms and started reinvigorating its major (albeit waning) fields.

The companies have boosted Iraqi production from a couple of thousand barrels a day to 2.6 million daily barrels in just over a year.

Even more impressive are the seemingly reasonable notions that the country could reach 9 million barrels a day within a few years. That number assumes, however, that the companies are able to plug away unabated. And therein lies the rub.

Click here for the full report.

The Two Prerequisites For Hyperinflation

November 23, 2011

321 Gold

By Steve Saville

Relatively rapid inflation of the money supply — say, a monetary inflation rate averaging 10% per year — can occur for a long time without the “inflation” becoming “hyper”. The reason is that a certain mass psychology must be present to create the condition known as hyperinflation. At the same time, hyperinflation cannot result from psychological factors alone. There must also be rapid growth in the money supply.

To further explain, assume that an economy’s money supply has been increasing at around 10% per year for many years, leading to a roughly 8% per year reduction in the purchasing power (pp) of money. (Under normal circumstances the long-term reduction in money pp will be less than the long-term increase in money supply due to the effects of productivity and population increases.) At this point, a critical mass of people comes to believe that the “inflation” will be endless and that money is guaranteed to be worth significantly less in 12 months time than it is today. These people react by becoming much quicker to spend whatever money they get, which has the effect of reducing the pp of money at a faster rate than the money supply is increasing. The accelerated rate at which prices are rising throughout the economy leads to wider recognition of the inflation problem and a more widespread desire to spend money as quickly as possible. In other words, a vicious cycle begins whereby rapid price rises cause people to accelerate their spending, leading to even faster increases in prices, and so on. This is hyperinflation.

The possibility that a change in psychology could accelerate the pace at which money loses pp is why central bankers devote so much time and energy to the management of inflation expectations. However, they need not bother, because the above description of how ‘normal’ inflation evolves into hyperinflation leaves out a part of the process over which the central bank has full control and without which the general price level could not rocket upward for long. At any time during the inflationary process described above, the central bank could put an end to the price spiral without delving into the nebulous world of psychology. It would simply have to stop the expansion of the money supply.

Consider this: If prices were rising rapidly throughout the economy, a lot more money would be needed for every transaction. Another way of saying this is that the demand for money would be in a steep upward trend. Not the demand for money as a temporary store of purchasing power, but the demand for money as a medium to facilitate exchange.

Now consider what would happen if an upward ramp in money demand were not met by an upward ramp in money supply. It should be clear that a severe shortage of money would soon develop and that the price (purchasing power) of money would rise to bring demand and supply back into balance. That is, the prices of goods and services would fall.

Click here for the full report.

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